The invention set forth in this specification pertains to new and improved child resistant dispensing closures.
The term "dispensing closure" is commonly utilized to designate two-part closures employing a cap and a spout. Such closures are normally constructed so that the spout is rotatably mounted on the cap in such a manner as to be capable of being rotated between an opened position in which a passage through the spout is in communication with an opening through the top of the cap and a closed position in which the spout closes off the opening through the cap. Such dispensing closures may be constructed in a number of different manners.
In the past many of such closures have been constructed so as to utilize flat tops and spouts which lie within grooves in such tops in order to facilitate containers utilizing such closures being stacked on one another. Such "flat top" closures have been constructed in such a manner as to permit manual access to their spouts in order to permit the spouts to be engaged when they are in a closed position so as to be rotated to an opened position. Frequently such closures have been constructed in such a manner that the ends of the passages in their spouts are closed off by walls within the cap so as to prevent any material which may be located within such passages from drying out by contact with ambient air.
The term "child resistant" is being increasingly utilized in the closure field so as to designate closures which are sufficiently difficult to open so that at least in theory comparatively young children are not apt to open them but which nevertheless are sufficiently easy to open so that the average adult can open them when necessary. The dispensing closure industry has been faced with a significant problem in providing dispensing closures which are child resistant in character. Various attempts have been made to solve this problem in various ways by various different types of dispensing closures.
An understanding of the invention is not considered to require an understanding of all of the various different types of child resistant dispensing closures which have been proposed and to varying extents adopted. However, it is believed that it will be useful in understanding the invention to briefly review the efforts which have been made to provide flat top dispensing closures of a child resistant category. Various known flat top child resistant closures have been constructed so as to employ detents or detent type structures intended to make the spouts in said closures relatively difficult to open. Closures of this type have not been considered to be sufficiently child resistant in character to be acceptable from a commercial standpoint.
It has also been proposed to construct so-called flat top dispensing closures employing various types of latches and similar structures to make these closures relatively difficult to open. Although prior dispensing closures of these types are considered to be utilitarian and satisfactory it is considered that there is a need for new and improved child resistant dispensing closures which are desirable from a number of aspects. More specifically, it is considered that there is a need for closures of this type which are effective from a child resistant viewpoint, which are desirable from an aesthetic and a utilitarian standpoint, and which can be constructed with a minimum of redesign of existing closures so as to minimize the costs of these closures.